The John Griff column: All good things come to an end…why the BBC and I have parted company

In truth, it is part of something much bigger which has been in the works for over a year – the BBC is an enormous supertanker of an organisation, the changes are UK-wide and it takes time to bring them about. The corporation is now starting to regionalise the output of its local radio service – beyond the weekday breakfast and mid-morning shows, almost all of Radio Northampton’s broadcast airtime will ultimately come from studio centres outside the county. And because the changes will affect ALL stations in the local radio network, no single station will remain unchanged in the way it delivers local stories to local audiences. You could redefine ‘local’ as being ‘regional’ – so you may well hear stories from Dunstable rather than Daventry, Houghton Regis rather than Great Houghton or maybe The Galleria in Hatfield rather than the Grosvenor Centre in Northampton shortly. The same will apply to listeners of BBC Three Counties Radio, or perhaps BBC Radio Norfolk – they might get stories from Kettering, Corby or Brackley, depending on the time of the day or the news agenda of regional TV reporters, whose soundtracks can be harvested, perhaps lightly re-edited and put out via radio. At the weekend there will be almost no programmes broadcast from Abington Street at all, beyond sport.

Why?

In part it seems to be down to Boris Johnson acolyte and former Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, Nadine Dorries. Two years ago she froze the price of TV licence until April next year and sent the BBC’s bean counters into an apoplectic tailspin of cost-revenue analysis. Local radio ended up being considered an expensive luxury for the nations - and the knives came out. In truth the consumption of media in this country has changed dramatically in recent years with the advent of the replayers and streamers – what’s called ‘linear consumption’ is down and many of us now watch – or listen – to material on our own terms rather than as dictated by a broadcaster’s day-to-day schedule. The Dorries moratorium ends in April next year, when presumably there will be a requested increase (above inflation?) in the price of a TV licence. And Dorries herself? No longer an MP, she was announced as a TalkTV host in January of this year, although I can’t now find a listing for her in its autumn schedule…

Radio Northampton is in the vanguard of the changes as one of the first stations in the network of thirty-nine to have them imposed upon it. When announced, the BBC said that less than fifty staff would lose their jobs – but it didn’t say a word about freelancers who have found their contracts being managed to an end before being quietly ushered out of the door. I assure you that there are many more people who, through these changes will either be lost completely to a fast-shrinking industry or having to look for something outside it. Many will be, in age terms at least, towards the end of their working lives but not in a position to contemplate retirement yet. What’s more, there will be fewer openings within the industry as it shrinks – and its young people too who will be affected. Just as our armed forces still need to recruit to dramatically reduced headcounts, the BBC will need do the same. For students considering their futures after the exam results of the past few weeks, I wonder what the demand for media-based courses in higher education will be, given the difficulties in securing work that may follow. There are plenty of brilliant and talented young people working within local radio right now – where next for them though and how far is the industry cutting its own throat?

If mine is an introspective view from within, what about the effects of the changes to the wider community? Knowing how local radio has prioritised local people and their stories to date, I fear that there will be fewer voices from the county on the air and fewer opportunities to get truly local – and relevant - stories out to local audiences. Some community groups could fail altogether because they can’t reach a wide enough audience to drive awareness of what they do for the wider community. Commercial radio stations don’t broadcast to the public – they broadcast to advertisers and potential future clients who secure their futures. Their stock in trade is airtime and put simply, the more people listen, the more they can charge for their advertising slots. The stock in trade for the BBC is the same – but it is the audience which pays for the BBC’s existence through the licence fee and the BBC’s own commercial activities globally. Interestingly the current Director General’s origins are from within BBC Enterprises. He’s not a broadcaster - he doesn’t have to be either.

With such a marked reduction in locally originated and delivered output, competition to get on the air via a regionalised show will develop. Stories judged to be ‘smaller’ with perhaps smaller voices will find it significantly more difficult to reach a public audience. Businesses will find the same – political public accountability might suffer too. Without overblowing the importance of any broadcaster public or commercial, it will affect the communities served by those organisations, rural or metropolitan.

I have massively enjoyed my time as a BBC local radio broadcaster – I am proud to have been part of Radio Northampton. I fluffed my last lines on Saturday but I am not ashamed of my emotions. To represent local people locally is the unique offer and strength of Radio Northampton – it should remain so throughout each and every day. If an audience wants to listen further afield it has many options to do so – but for local relevance it has only one which is now shrinking. As a listener I wish my former colleagues nothing but the very best – but I fear for the future of a publicly owned asset and companion to many which I see under threat.